“Our recent enhancements to BlackLine U are predicated on optimizing not only the training experiences of our customers, but coupling this learning with peer-to-peer interactions via the BlackLine Community,” said Lynn Viduya, BlackLine senior director of Global Education Services.

BlackLine U is a learning portal that provides access to comprehensive training resources for new and existing customers. BlackLine Community is a 24-7-365 online portal for BlackLine customers to gather and share best practices with each other and BlackLine employees, furthering their knowledge in how to extract the most value from the platform’s features and functions.

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The educational options within BlackLine U have expanded to include highly interactive, virtual, instructor-led classes with hands-on practice in a BlackLine training instance. To deepen knowledge of the BlackLine solution, several BlackLine U webinars are designed to showcase best practices and provide tips and tricks from internal BlackLine experts.

Continuing Professional Education (CPE) eligible credits also are available for select courses, including virtual instructor-led classes. As many as 12 CPE credits are offered at InTheBlack, BlackLine’s annual user conference being held next week in Los Angeles, and two to four credits during BlackLine’s Modern Finance Tour events. “We believe firmly in the value of continuous education to sharpen users’ skills and knowledge, via in-person sessions, live webinars and other highly interactive options,” Viduya said.

BlackLine U also has implemented technology enhancements designed to make the learning portal more robust. “We’ve created new learning paths specific to the user’s role in BlackLine—whether they’re a business administrator or an accountant, for instance,” she added. “The users take only the training relevant to the tasks they perform in the BlackLine solution. Learning dashboards are available at an individual and team level to monitor progress.”

Among the many enrichments to BlackLine Community is a new feature designed to solicit greater input from users. “We wanted to refresh the ways that people start a discussion using the portal, by creating an `idea section’ where a user could hype how the person used our tools in a very productive way,” said Bobby Khaleghian, BlackLine’s senior client marketing manager. “Once an idea is created, it is then `open for voting’ by other community members. If the idea gains traction, it is used by our product management team to influence the product roadmap.”

BlackLine Community is rolling out other new features to assist the entire BlackLine User Group (BUG) to better interact both online and offline to cultivate more personal connections. “We’re digitizing more experiences where our BUGs can interact to solve problems and share best practices,” Khaleghian said. “We take the notion of a `community’ here quite seriously.”